WHO: Coronavirus death toll could be 'two to three' times above official stats

Official death tolls from the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to be a "significant undercount", the World Health Organization said on Friday, estimating that the true figure of direct and indirect deaths could be two to three times higher.

Report informs, citing Reuters, that the WHO estimated that total death from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 were at least 3 million or 1.2 million more than the 1.8 million figure officially announced.

With the rising death toll in Latin America and Asia as new variants spread, the death toll "would truly be two to three times higher," said Samira Asma, WHO's Assistant Director-General in its data and analytics division.

"So I think safely about 6 to 8 million deaths could be an estimate on a cautionary note," Asma told a virtual press briefing.